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In 2007, I began my original website, Sonshine's Haven. In 2007, it was turned into a blog and used to keep family updated on my first husband's fight with liver cancer. He passed away November of 2009. We were married for 34+ wonderful years and this journals some of that grief process I've gone through.

I have since remarried another widower, but Mike is missed dearly, and will always be a big part of my life.

At times, all of us will be called to act as witnesses to the suffering of another. We will be unable to affect the outcome physically. Words will fail us. Prayer will seem futile. And yet, the act of bearing witness to someone else's trials is a sacred sorrow that offers and astounding glimpse of eternal joy." by Ginger Garrett

"Being willing to stay with a loved one throughout their travail, can be difficult....YES! But offering yourselves as faithful companions on a dark and dreadful journey can be an unmeasured blessing." (paraphrased by me)

5.23.2008

His Compassions Never Fail

Friday was a good day for Mike. It hasn't brought us the surprises his last treatment gave us...at least not so far. He decided to do things a little differently which may have helped. He has taken medication for pain and nausea, before he's felt the need for them, which Mike feels might also be helping to take the edge off the jitters he normally gets following a treatment. So maybe we're staying ahead of the game this time.

A small thing came up yesterday during treatment that slightly concerned me and I thought I would share it, just as a matter of prayer. When Mike is receiving a treatment, they first run a saline drip into his port. After that has been going for awhile, they add a Benadryl bag and a Steroid bag. Those three generally take about 30 minutes before the actually chemo drugs are started. Next, they start the Taxol drug which is a three hour bag and is the one considered the most important for Mike's situation. And lastly, they begin the Carboplatin bag which generally takes 45 minutes. If you add all of these up, Mike's treatments lasts about 4 1/2 hours.

About two treatments ago, the head nurse sped up the last bag allowing Mike to get that drug within 30 minutes, shaving 15 minutes off the time. Mike handled it really well. There were no problems. So yesterday, we were jokingly asking her to push that drug along so we could get out of there faster. That's when we were cautioned and learned that some patients can have an allergic reaction to receiving the Carboplatin, and it usually displays itself by turning the patient red. Usually if it's going to happen, it's generally around the 6-8th treatment, but it has occurred as late as the 10th or 11th treatment. Once that reaction happens, the patient no longer can take that drug.

When I heard about this, it quickly hit me that one of the two drugs Mike was getting to help beat this cancer, could possibly be taken away, and of course, we wouldn't want that to happen, especially since we've been making so much progress with them. I'm not sure if there would be something else they would use in it's place or not, if that happened, but I really hope we never have to find out. The nurses were trying to reassure us that Mike was handling the drugs well, and they weren't concerned. I hope you will pray with me that both of these chemotherapy drugs can continue to be used as long as we need them.

Mike is thinking we will have one more treatment (June12th), and then a CT Scan will probably be ordered to review the progress, somewhere a couple of weeks after that. We continue to trust God to remove this tumor completely, and restore Mike to full strength and good health. Thank you for standing with us and for interceeding to God on our behalf.

"This I call to mind and therefore I have hope; Because of the Lord's great love, we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning." Lamentations 3:21-23
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